Chapter 2 (Tap Tap Tap)
So, the day that Natasha left, a day after Eve’s thirteenth birthday, was the first night of weirdness. And I say weirdness because that’s all we made of it early on.
I was fast asleep in bed when I heard a yelp from Eve’s room. My eyes flicked open and I frowned. Then I heard her shuffling around in her room.
“Eve?” I called out.
She yelped again and I heard a very light sob.
“Hold on, sweetheart,” I said, getting into my dressing gown. Although it was still September it was always cold in the house.
I switched the light on and made my way down the landing and into her room. I switched the light on where I found her standing in the corner on a small wooden stool with her hands held up to her mouth, her eyes scanning the floor.
“What’s up, sweetheart?” I asked.
She looked at me. “I think a spider just ran across my arm,” she said.
Eve was terrified of spiders (aren’t we all?) and I didn’t fancy the prospect of having to go searching for one at this hour.
“Are you sure it was a spider and not just a dream?”
“I felt it, mum. It ran across my arm.”
“Maybe the covers slipped across your arm-”
“It was a spider,” said Eve.
“Okay, well I can’t see anything,” I said, looking all over her cream carpet for any sign of the eight-legged fiend. “It might have even run out the door when I came in.” I shuddered at the thought of the spider running to my room.
“Or it could be in the bed?” said Eve. “Jenny Craven says that they can live in your mattress.”
“Well Jenny Craven also says that aliens abducted her grandma one Christmas Eve.”
“But what if it’s true?” said Eve.
I could see she was clearly terrified. She took after me with regards to the arachnophobia.
“Look, I tell you what – why don’t you come in my bed tonight then in the morning I’ll get the hoover out and we’ll have a good luck for Steve.”
“Steve?” Eve frowned.
“Steve the Spider. It’s a stuffed toy you used to have when you were six.”
“Urggh, I remember!” said Eve. “I hated that thing then as well.”
“So what do you reckon? Is it a deal?”
Eve glanced around her room again, jumped down from the wooden stool and ran over to me. Teenager or not, she was still my little girl and I was the only one to protect her from the big, bad spider.
“Deal,” said Eve, looking up at me hopefully.
So we shut her room, put a large draft excluder along the bottom of the door (just in case Steve decided to escape) and we made our way to my room.
It was strange. I’d gotten so used to sleeping on my own for the last six years that having someone else beside me again made me uncomfortable. Eve drifted off after about ten minutes of telling me what else Jenny Carven had frightened her with whilst I lay there, staring up at the darkness. All I could make out was very, very faint outlines of things.
It must have been getting on for around 3am when I started to finally drift off. Or at least I would have done if I hadn’t heard the sound. I didn’t make anything of it at first and just assumed it was the house cooling down, but this wasn’t the normal creaks and groans that a house usually makes. This was more rhythmic and continuous.
It started off as a light and gentle tapping from somewhere towards the back of the house. Towards the back bedroom. I frowned as I tried to concentrate on the sound. It was definitely a tapping – like someone tapping a stick on the wall.
My first thought went back to Steve the Spider but I dismissed that straight away. Steve wouldn’t make a sound like that.
No, this was definitely something like a stick. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap somewhere on the wall near the upstairs bathroom. I continued to listen as the sound repeated over and over again. I was about to get out of bed and go and look when something made me stop.
The sound was getting closer.
Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap came the sound. It had moved from near the bathroom and was now on the wall running down the side of Eve’s bedroom.
I glanced at Eve, remembering it was dark and I couldn’t see her anyway, but she was still fast asleep. I could hear her gentle breathing.
Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. It was starting to worry me now. Was it a mouse in the wall or something? I quickly went to my bedside lamp and flicked the switch. The bedroom was bathed in a warm, golden glow and I blinked rapidly in the light.
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
“Eve, wake up, sweetheart,” I said, gently shaking her.
“What...?” said Eve, opening her eyes slowly and then screwing them shut again. “Mum?”
“Wake up, Eve,” I said.
Tap, tap, tap, tap. The sound was getting nearer to my room. Now you have to understand how my room is laid out. It wasn’t my idea, it was Julian’s, but when he passed away I couldn’t bear to change it. The head of the bed is against the inner wall so that the bed faces the two windows that look out over the grass front and railway. So, in other words, my head is always right next to the wall leading into Eve’s room. So right at this point the sound was getting closer and closer to my head.
“What is it?” asked Eve, sitting up and rubbing at her eyes. “Did you find the spider?”
“No, not Steve,” I said. “Can you hear that?”
Eve listened out.
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
“What is that?” asked Eve, trying to concentrate on the sound.
“I don’t know but it’s getting closer.” I got out from under the covers and slipped my fluffy pink slippers on.
“Well it can’t be anything too serious,” said Eve, looking worriedly at me.
“No, but it doesn’t sound right.”
Tap, tap, tap, tap. The Sound was now right behind my bed. I frowned and put my hand to the wall. I jumped back as it tapped again. I could feel the gentle vibration through the wall.
“Mum?” said Eve, looking worriedly at me.
I backed away from the wall and towards the bedroom door. I put my hand on the cold, brass doorknob and was about to turn it when...
WHACK! came the cracking of the stick on the wall.
Eve jumped and let out a yelp. I went as white as a ghost and yanked the door open that fast I thought I was going to pull it off its hinges.
And there was nothing there. Nothing at all.
“What was it?” asked Eve, making sure the bed covers were up to her chin.
“There’s nothing,” I said, feeling around the wall for any clue as to what could have caused the sound.
“Maybe...maybe it was just the house. Maybe the house is creaking.”
“Yeah, maybe,” I said, realising Eve was looking a little close to being terrified. “Maybe, sweetheart,” I said.
I closed the door, took off my slippers and got back into bed. I kissed Eve goodnight again and pulled the covers up as high as I could. That night we slept with the light on. I couldn’t explain the sound and my fear was completely irrational, but something about it wasn’t right.
Something about it was frightening. And that sound was just the start of it.
The following morning we were sat at the kitchen table. It was a Saturday so the both of us had the day off. Eve was busy tucking into her cornflakes with too much milk poured on them and I was spreading butter on a slice of burnt toast.
Neither of us had spoken about the sound the previous night, but it was clearly still playing on both of our minds.
I was just pouring myself a cup of coffee when there was a knock at the door. I looked at Eve, whose head was buried in a teen girl magazine and put the kettle down. I went to the door, unlocked it and opened it to two strangers.
Standing there was a man in a suit and tie wearing a long, grey coat. He had the remnants of a beard, short, dark hair and piercing blue eyes. He was quite handsome and smiled when I looked at him. By his side was a girl in her early to mid twenties. She was wearing a red and white polka dot dress, leather jacket and had her long, dark hair tied into a ponytail. She had dark eyes and a beautiful smile.
“Hi,” I said, folding my arms. “Can I help you?”
“I think we can help you actually, Mrs Webster. Or may I call you Emily?” asked the man. He had a Scottish accent.
“I don’t understand. Help me how?”
“Tell me, Emily,” continued the man, “have you had a problem with tapping in your house?” He raised his eyebrows.
And that’s when everything changed.
To be continued...
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